Of A Storm And Its Ending
by hufflepuff-ish
Summary: Hermione is having a terrible night and Teddy, who she's babysitting, isn't making things any easier for her. Luckily, Fred shows up just in time and makes everything better. [One Shot] [Written for the QLFC]


**ROUND SEVEN**

Main prompt: Write about a witch or wizard trying to explain to a magical child how (one or more) Muggle technology works.

Optional prompts: 3 (action) charging an electronic device, 13 (word) batteries, 15 (dialogue) "What do you mean, these pictures don't move?"

AU where Fred doesn't die during the battle of Hogwarts

 **Thanks you to Xanda for betaing :)**

* * *

In a small apartment in London, Hermione Granger feels like this day is meant to be the worst she has had in a while. The small heels of her shoes click against the wooden floor as she walks around her kitchen. She is trying hard to multitask; the salad she is making isn't finished yet, the pasta that is cooking should be ready any moment now, and she needs to finish cutting the chicken that is meant for the little boy she is babysitting tonight. Teddy has already complained about being hungry twice in the past half an hour—very politely, to be fair—which makes Hermione even more nervous, because a four year old is still waiting for his food because of her.

The witch's feet hurt from running around the entire day, but she pushes the thought away and focuses on cutting another cucumber. She has about thirty seconds until the pasta's ready. That leaves her with enough time to finish most of the salad if she's quick enough. Or maybe she should first give Teddy his chicken? She probably should have done that. Hermione decides to finish cutting the tomato, spill the water out of the pot with the pasta, then give the young Metamorphmagus his food—or half of his dinner, to be exact.

A sharp pain suddenly comes from her hand, and Hermione glances down to see a centimeter long cut on index finger. She opens her mouth to curse, yet she ends up saying nothing, unsure if she should be angry at herself or at the world. Frustrated and tired, she huffs and tries to blink away the tears that gather in her eyes. For a moment, the bright witch wants to simply sit down and cry over all the things that made this day so awful. Instead, she swallows her feelings and turns to the oven in order to turn off the fire under her pasta.

Unsurprisingly, she almost gets burned by the hot water that she spills into the sink. Of course, she can use magic to help herself a little, but the curly-haired girl prefers the Muggle way. She pours the pasta into a bowl, while bringing her injured finger to her mouth and licking her blood. After quickly charming a band aid around her finger, she continues her task. Hermione adds a sauce from the supermarket down the street to the pasta. With the pasta bowl in one hand and the plate with chicken in the other, she heads towards Teddy.

Teddy is seated on the couch, flipping through the pages of a children's book she bought him about a month ago. Ron and Harry teased her for buying a book for such a young child, but, in her defense, it has many drawings in it. All of the Metamorphmagus's attention is set on the book, and he doesn't even look at his baby sitter as she sits next to him.

''Hi, love,'' Hermione says softly and places his plate in front of him. ''Sorry for the wait. Do you want some pasta?''

Instead of waiting for the boy's reply, she puts a decent amount of pasta on his plate and turns her attention back to Teddy, expecting him to start eating. Suddenly, she remembers she has a surprise muffin for him, and she walks back into the kitchen to take it out of the refrigerator, afraid that she'll forget about it.

Hermione comes back to the living room a minute later, with Teddy's little surprise hidden behind her back. Now that Teddy has his dinner, she feels relieved. She places the muffin on the table beside him, making sure it's not in his line of sight, then she heads toward the kitchen as she plans to get herself a plate and join Teddy. She turns to look at him, and comes to an abrupt stop when she sees what he is eating. To her surprise, the little boy is happily eating his muffin, while his dinner is sitting untouched.

''Teddy, no,'' the curly-haired witch says in disappointment and walks towards the boy. ''You need to eat your chicken and vegetables first, then the dessert.''

When she crouches next to him, the four year old looks at her with big eyes, making her feel bad for taking away the muffin. ''I promise I'll let you eat it later,'' she says and takes a hold of the abandoned plate and fork. ''But now, we're eating this.''

Upset, Teddy shakes his head and points at the muffin, which is standing on the table's corner behind his babysitter for tonight. ''I want this.''

Sighing, Hermione ignores his words and stabs a piece of chicken with the fork. She offers it to the boy and says, ''You want this, too. It's tasty. First chicken, then the muffin.''

Unfortunately, it isn't enough to convince the Metamorphmagus, who shakes his head again. ''Muffin,'' he insists.

''No, Teddy. _Chicken_ ,'' the witch says and brings the fork closer to his mouth. ''You told me you were hungry, so this is dinner.''

The next several seconds pass in silence between the boy and the young woman. The latter continues to bring the fork closer to him, even moving in towards him as if it's a plane, but he, in return, keeps his mouth closed and shakes his head repeatedly. Hermione even eats a bit of chicken herself, thinking that maybe if she eats it so will he, but it only results in reminding her of how hungry she is.

''Please, Teddy. Eat half of the chicken on this plate, and I'll let you finish the muffin. I'll even give you something else with chocolate,'' she offers, but the boy doesn't break.

Her shoulders fall and a strong sense of frustration fills her body. It doesn't help that her knees begin to hurt from her crouched position. Hermione, as a last attempt, puts the plate on the boy's knees.

" _Please_ ," she says again, much more quietly this time.

Teddy puts the plate away almost immediately. Perhaps the fact that she isn't tough enough on Teddy is the problem, but he's usually a boy that is easy to handle, and, at this point, she's too tired.

The glossy eyed witch stands up and turns her back to Teddy. It's a relief for her knees, yet other than that, she feels just as awful. Tears begin to stream down her face and she attempts to wipe them away, until she realizes there is no point to it because the tears just keep falling.

A knock on the door catches Hermione's attention. At first, she ignores it, hoping that whoever it is will go away, because whatever it is, she can't deal with it right now. But then, the knock is heard again and she gives up.

When Hermione looks through the peephole, she sees Fred Weasley. They haven't talked since their fight last night, and this is the last person she wants to deal with at the moment. Almost as if he knows what she's thinking, Fred leans on the doorway and crosses his arms over his chest with a determined look.

Not wanting to be seen in such a state, she opens the door not wider than a few centimeters. The redhead on the other side immediately straightens his posture and faces her.

''Look, love, I know—'' Fred begins to say, but stops as soon as he meets Hermione's gaze. His expression immediately turns into a worried one. ''What's wrong?''

Hermione wants to scold him for knowing her so well; even when he only sees such a small part of her face, he knows something is wrong with her. ''Just a rough night,'' she shakes her head and looks at the floor. ''This isn't the best time. Teddy's here.''

Fred stays quiet for a few seconds, while the girl in front of him wishes he would go away. It isn't because she is still upset about their fight—well, maybe a little bit—but because she feels like she can't deal with anything else at the moment.

''Can I come in?'' he asks eventually. ''We don't have to talk about us, just let me help you with whatever you need. I swear I won't bother you.''

A small wave of sudden sadness hits Hermione, who purses her lips to try and hold back her tears. Silently, she takes a step back and opens the door wider, allowing Fred to walk inside. He gives her a worried look when he sees her wet and pink cheeks, and the redness of her eyes, but she avoids looking back. After the curly haired witch locks the door, she turns around to see her boyfriend sitting next to Teddy, as he greets him with a warm smile. The little boy is eating his muffin again, and the sight makes Hermione feel emotionally tired.

''How are you, buddy?'' Fred asks and glances at the plate of food in front of them. ''What is this? Is this yours?''

As an answer, Teddy shakes his head and continues to eat his dessert. In the meanwhile, Hermione remains standing by the door and watches the two interact. She has officially given up on making dinner, not to mention trying to make the young Metamorphmagus eat his food. So, she stands there, feeling drained from any energy she had. When her boyfriend's eyes meet hers, silently asking her the same question he asked Teddy, she nods.

''I see; someone has been misbehaving and giving his aunt Hermione a hard time,'' Fred says and pulls the boy next to him to sit in his lap. ''That's not very nice of you, mate.''

Teddy seems much happier next to Fred, and honestly, she can't blame him. Seeing their light conversation makes the witch jealous them, which turns into another weight of sadness that sits on her chest. They smile at each other and laugh, while she feels like a black hole of darkness is swallowing her.

When the redhead wizard stands up, her brown eyes follow him until he is standing in front of her with a serious expression. He sighs at the sight of Hermione, who wishes that she wasn't babysitting, so she could hug him tightly and let herself drown in the comfort she knows he would offer. Fred cups her face and she leans into his right hand, even though it isn't the touch she wanted.

''Darling, why don't you take some time to yourself, while I'll take care of this little troublemaker?'' he suggests.

Their gazes stay focused on each other, and Hermione feels as if walls are building up around them, capturing her in a world where it's only her and Fred. As much as she hates to give up on things, she knows she needs to let him step in. She drowns in the sea of green in his eyes and she feels the darkness inside of her slightly fade away. Merlin, she loves Fred Weasley so much.

Her voice comes out quiet and broken when she says, ''Thank you.''

Fred gives her a genuine smile that she doesn't expect and replies, ''Stop being silly.''

After looking at him for a few more seconds, Hermione excuses herself and heads into her bedroom. She feels like she has neglected her responsibility as Teddy's babysitter, but she also knows that it's best for everyone that she takes a short break from the Metamorphmagus. The curly haired witch decides that taking a shower will be the perfect way to relax, and proves herself right when the warm water makes the tension of her aching body fade, and her mind travels to anything but Teddy.

When Hermione walks out of her room again, she is surprised to at the smell of food in the air. She studies her surroundings and spots Fred and Teddy still on the couch, only now the plate in front of the young boy is mostly empty. The two boys are lying next to each other calmly, looking at what Hermione recognizes to be photographs from the family album she has in her living room. Teddy's hair is purple now, unlike the dark brown that it was earlier, and he's wearing a deep frown on his face.

"What do you mean, these pictures don't move?" he asks Fred, obviously confused.

Smirking, Fred says, ''Well, I'm not sure how it works, but Muggle cameras can only capture one moment. So, if someone takes a picture of you with one of those, make sure to have your absolute best smile on, or else people will think you look like an ugly block.''

''These are boring,'' Teddy complains with a small pout.

''Actually,'' Hermione interrupt the two and steps closer to them, moving their attention to her. ''I think they aren't worse than magical cameras. There are video cameras that can film for minutes, hours even, but I think there is something nice about pressing a button to capture one moment."

" _Hours_?" Teddy asks, amazed and sits up. ''You can see that in that big box, right?''

Following his gaze, the curly-haired young woman sees he's referring to her television. ''TV, yes. It shows mostly shows and movies—Muggles film them for entertainment,'' she explains and takes a seat on Teddy's other side.

While the four year old stays quiet, Fred stands up and says, ''Love, how about in the meantime I'll give you some dinner? A little bird told me that you haven't eaten yet.''

With a perfect timing, Hermione's stomach growls with hunger and she nods. ''That would be great, thank you,'' she says, unable to resist giving him a small smile.

Smiling back, Fred winks at her and walks into the kitchen. She watches him as he takes a plate and starts laying food on it. They still need to work on the things that caused their fight from the night before, but it will have to be delayed. For now, she's glad Fred is here, and she realizes that even though things between them seemed bad, she doesn't want to end their relationship. She loves him even more for being here and supporting her.

Teddy's voice interrupts her thoughts. ''Can we film for hours?''

''Well, no. We can film for hours, but standard cameras won't last for that long without a change of batteries, or being charged with electricity,'' Hermione explains and the disappointed look on the boy's face makes her feel bad. ''But, if you want, I can let you watch TV for a little while.''

''Really?'' the Metamorphmagus asks excitedly and a bright smile settles on his lips.

Hermione nods and smiles back.

''But,'' Fred interrupts as he walks back into the living room and hands his girlfriend a plate, a fork and a knife, ''before that, there is something that Teddy here wants to say.''

The joke shop owner gives Teddy and meaningful look. The little boy lowers his head in embarrassment and moves his gaze to Hermione, whose expression is slightly confused. She notices the way his hair changes its color to black, and wonder what the bloody hell happened while she was taking that shower.

''I'm sorry that I wasn't nice to you, and I'm sorry you cried, a-and I will be a good boy from now on. I don't want Uncle Fred to be mad at me as well, because then he won't let me into his shop,'' the boy murmurs.

The witch's features relax and she smiles softly. Her brown eyes flicker to meet Fred's, who flinches.

''He was not supposed to say that last part,'' the redhead says quietly.

Chuckling, Hermione looks back to the young boy. Teddy is pouting and even though he didn't make things easy on her, she can't stay mad at him.

''Apology accepted,'' she replies and puts aside her dinner. ''Let's find you something nice to watch.''

Again, the boy's expression turned into a relieved one. He watches curiously as Fred hands her the remote and she turns on the television. Then, she moves through the channels until she finds a Disney movie for Teddy to watch.

From then on, Teddy becomes very quiet as he watches the animated movie, while Hermione finally has a chance to eat. Leaning back in her seat, she holds her plate close to her chest and crosses her ankles on top of the coffee table. Surprisingly, she realizes that the movie is actually a good distraction for her, too.

Suddenly, the curly haired girl looks to Fred, who is already looking at her from Teddy's other side. The smile he gives her is a little hesitant, but it widens when she returns it. He puts his arm on the sofa's back and squeezes her shoulder. In return, she mouths 'thank you', although it doesn't seem to her like enough to show her gratitude for everything he did tonight.

After she's finished eating, Hermione moves closer to Teddy so she can hold Fred's hand, the little boy leans against her side. Smiling, she uses her free hand to stroke his hair, which is now purple. Her chest warms at how things turned out, and she wonders if maybe storms are worth going through to have the calm that comes after them.


End file.
